Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1917, Supplement 2, The World War, Volume I

File No. 860c.01/51

The Ambassador in France ( Sharp) to the Secretary of State

No. 5805

Paris, November 9, 1917.
[Received November 27.]

Sir: I have the honor to enclose herewith, in copy and translation, a report on the situation in Poland which has been brought to me by Mr. Marjan Seyda, member of the Polish National Committee which formed the subject of the Department’s telegram No. 2703 of October 8 last.²

I am informed that the periodical reports of Mr. Seyda were formerly given to the American Minister at Berne.

I have [etc.]

W. G. Sharp

[Enclosure—Translation]

Mr. Marjan Seyda, for the Polish National Committee, to the American Ambassador ( Sharp)

Paris, October 24, 1917.

Mr. Ambassador: According to official news from Berlin and Vienna, under date of October 15, the Emperors of Germany and Austria have “decided to appoint (in ihr Amt einzusetzen) as members of the Council of Regency of the Kingdom of Poland, pursuant to article 1 of the letters patent of September 12, 1917, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Warsaw (Mgr. Kakowski), Prince Lubomirski (Zdzislas) and the landowner, Joseph Ostrowski.” As regards the two first, they have been designated from the beginning as candidates to the Council of Regency; the candidature of the third, M. Ostrowski, a Conservative,’ who these last few years on account of his health, had not taken a very active part in politics, was only brought into notice when the candidature of M. Niemojewski, former President of the Provisional Council of State discredited and forced to resign, had become impossible through the attitude adopted in regard to him both by the Moderate parties and the parties on the Left, and also when Count Adam Tarnowski, former Austro-Hungarian Ambassador, had refused to accept the post.

Nearly five weeks have elapsed between the publication of the Austro-Hungarian letters patent and of the decree upon the Council of Regency, the Ministry and the Council of State of the Kingdom of Poland, and the effective creation of the Council of Regency. In order to gather an exact idea regarding the creation of the Council of Regency, composed of the members named above, it is indispensable to know and to understand the facts incident to its creation as well as their origin.

The impression produced by the acts of September 12 upon the Poles within the Kingdom, and in Poland generally, was very slight—as was distinctly brought out by the press of Poznan (Posen) and of Cracow. The feelings of the Poles towards the occupants, and more especially towards the Germans, are of the most bitter kind; this for several reasons: innate instinctive hostility to Germans; general exasperation provoked by the merciless requisitions; indignation caused by the crushing of any Polish initiative by the occupants, contrary to the promises given in the proclamation of November 5, 1916; finally, these latter times, a considerable fermentation growing out of the severe repressions applied to the refractory troops and to the Socialist and Radical elements who, changing front, have taken up an attitude of violent opposition. It is upon ground thus prepared that the letters patent have fallen as well as the decree concerning the supreme Polish authorities. It has been understood, nevertheless, that these acts contained certain concessions which, if applied in all good faith, might have served as a basis upon which it would have been possible to build the foundations of the future interior existence of the Polish state, were it not for the fact that to each paragraph of the decree, restrictions are added, which, practically, may completely obliterate any such concessions. The only answer which the Poles would be instinctively prompted to make to the letters patent would be: “After words, let us have actions.” There is not the slightest doubt that the granting to the Poles, just lately, of public jurisdiction and instruction—two tangible concessions—produced far more effect than all of the acts of September 12.

But what attitude did the different political parties of the Kingdom observe in regard to these acts?

The Parties’ Political Club, organization of the moderate elements which represents, as the events of the last months have proven, the enormous majority of public opinion of the nation, took a very marked position in that respect prior even to the publication of the letters patent as soon as it was known what they would bring about. The following is the declaration made by the club concerning that act:

The Parties’ Political Club has neither taken part in the elaboration of the plan nor in the choice of persons called to the Council of Regency. However, in presence of the gravity of the new situation, the Parties’ Political Club feels it is its duty to make the following statement:

The Council of Regency to which a large field of action will be attributed in the task of reconstituting the state may fulfil its mission and obtain successful results for the nation, provided it does not forget one single moment that, according to the spirit that has always reigned in Poland throughout its history, the nation has been, and is, the only fountain-head of supreme power. We firmly believe that in the present transitory condition, the Council of Regency will not, without first consulting the wishes of the nation, take any decisions in regard to frontiers or to the constitution of the Polish state; neither will it offer anyone the crown of Poland nor sign any treaty whether political or commercial, tending to provide for the future destinies of Poland. We also expect the Council of Regency to protect the nation against the destructive consequences of the war, and to undertake efficaciously the task of constructing by its own means, a Polish state. Party of Realistic Politics, National Democratic Party, Polish Progressive Party, National Union-Christian Democratic Party, Party of Economic Independence.

It seems from the above declaration that the Parties’ Political Club considers as alone possible the taking in hand by the Poles of the administration of the country in view of organizing, by their own means, the internal activity of the state; as well as of defending the country against the “destructive consequences of the war”; that is to say against requisitions, and against all exploitation of the Kingdom by the authorities in occupation. On the other hand, the Parties’ Political Club has been, and is still absolutely opposed to the Polish authorities assuming the character of a political government which might dispose in any way of the future of Poland as regards the international point of view, or which might assume any engagements on the side of the Central Empires.

The point of view of the Parties’ Political Club corresponds completely to the opinion emitted by the National Polish Committee of Paris at the reunion held by it at Lausanne from August 12 to 15, an opinion which by secret means was communicated to the said club. It is evidently in the interest both of Poland and of the Allies that the administration of the Kingdom should pass from the hands of the Austro-Germans into those of the Poles; thus the requisitions of the occupying authorities will become to a certain point, more difficult, and at the same time the country may be gradually prepared for its future public life by establishing firm bases which, after the war, could oppose efficaciously the wave of anarchy which may come from the Orient. On the other side, however, the interests of Poland and those of the Allies absolutely require that the Kingdom should not be involved from the political point of view, and still less from the military, with the Central Empires.

As regards their attitude towards the Central Empires, the groups on the Left, the Socialists and Radicals, have drawn nearer, since the Russian revolution, to the Parties’ Political Club; their committee, subsequent to the publication of the Austro-German Acts, has made the following declaration:

The letters patent of the occupying Governments of September 12, 1917, may no doubt constitute a step towards the realization of the Polish state, but their real value can only be appreciated when the competence of the future Polish government shall have been defined, for the experience of the last months, as well as the fact that the letters patent maintain supreme power to the occupying Governments, allow very serious doubts to be entertained on that point. We consider as a first indispensable condition of efficacious work of the future Polish government, in union with the country: the acknowledgment of all civic liberties and, in the first place, the abolition of all repressions in regard to persons arrested for political offences and strikes; the liberation of the interned légionnaires; the reinstatement of Joseph Pilsudski in the country; liberty of the press and of reunions. We declare moreover that the future constitution of the Polish state must be uniquely decided by a Polish legislative diet, the convocation of which, upon the basis of universal suffrage, direct, secret, equal, without distinction of sex, should be one of the first tasks of the Government.

Alone the National Center, with the elements which are close to it, directed by the members of the former Provisional Council of State, in answer to the acts of September 12, has declared itself disposed to cooperate, both from the political and the military point of view, with the Central Empires. The principal passages of the resolution of the National Center are as follows:

The National Center welcomes, in the establishment of the Council, of Regency, the personification of the Supreme Authority of State which would give the guarantee that the act of November 5, 1916, was the starting point of the solution of the Polish question, and will finally become a real basis for the immediate creation of a Government and an army. Desiring that the peace congress which is coming nearer should find the Polish state sufficiently developed as regards its organization and the question of the eastern frontiers established (thanks to the cooperation of the Polish Army) according to national interests, the National Center considers it indispensable that the Council of Regency, as well as the Council of State and the Cabinet of Ministers, should be decided partisans of “activism.”^*

The Polish legions, which had been given to the Polish state and which were to serve as staff for the Polish army, have been reintegrated under the high Austro-German command, as Auxiliary Corps. Hoping that this order, and the sending of the legions to the Austro-Hungarian Army as Auxiliary Corps, is of a transitory character, and that the principal object to be attained is to purify the conditions that had lately developed in the regiments of the legions,^† the National Center believes that the Auxiliary Corps, once this purification accomplished, will be restituted as a whole to the Polish state, that is to say, without exclusion of the Austro-Hungarians who may form part of it, and that it will become the basis of the staffs for the formation of a regular Polish army organized by means of draft. The National Center deems that the immediate creation of a Polish army, ready to enter into action to second and decide the question of the eastern frontiers in the spirit of the Polish national aspirations, is an essential condition that the ideal of a Polish state, independence and government, may assume its proper significance, that it may become a reality and that the existence of the Polish state may be considered as assured.

The National Center conceives its “activism” to-day, as it has done heretofore, as a collaboration with the Central Empires (not only from the political point of view but also from the military), directed against Russia, thus indirectly also against all the Entente. But, having proven the complete failure of voluntary enlistment upon the basis of “fraternity with the German, the Austro-Hungarian Armies and those of their allies,” the National Center declares itself categorically in favor of obligatory enrolment.

Upon such a basis, of course, no one could govern the Kingdom for he would have against him nearly the totality of its inhabitants. An eloquent warning in this respect is the declaration of the Parties’ Political Club hereinabove cited, which, in principle, limits the competence of the Council of Regency, to the interior administration of the country, stating that on that condition alone the council may acquire any real authority. As regards the attitude of the said club, the Courrier Illustré of Cracow states that its members would neither form part of the Council of Regency nor of the Ministry, the latter being executive bodies, but would ulteriorly participate in the Council of State, the latter being a legislative body; this participation, however, could only take place under certain political conditions and in the event that the number of seats of which the club can dispose seems to it sufficient.

In consequence, Mgr. Kakowski, Prince Lubomirski, and Mr. Ostrowski, having decided to enter into the Council of Regency more especially for the purpose of preventing the power from passing into the hands of the National Center, as the Germans allowed to be feared, they will accomplish the duties of their mission under their own responsibility and not under that of the Parties’ Political Club. This resolution which has only been reached after serious hesitation has, in a certain fashion been made easy for them by the fact that the decree which accompanied the letters patent of September 12 excluded from the competence of the authorities of the Polish state “international representation of the Kingdom of Poland and the right to conclude international treaties,” that is to say, all foreign politics. Notwithstanding this, the letters patent appeal to Poland “united by her own free will to the Central powers” while the authorities in occupation made every endeavor, during a few weeks, to obtain from the future members of the Council of Regency before their institution, the promise to publish a manifesto stipulating the “intimate alliance” of the Polish state with the Central Empires, as well as the immediate necessity of declaring war to Russia. The German press triumphantly proclaimed that this agreement was already an accomplished fact. A telegram sent abroad from Berlin, on October 2, announced that Mgr. Kakowski, Prince Lubomirski and M. Ostrowski “had signed the bill exacted by the states in occupation.” (See for instance the Basler Nachrichten of October 3.) But, a few days later, the German papers began to retract. On October 5, a note appeared to the effect that the public was “resigned to relinquishing the idea of an official alliance” in view of the prescriptions of the conference of The Hague (telegram from Berlin to the Frankfurter Zeitung of October 6). Finally, the press bureau of the Austro-Hungarian Governor General (sic) at Lublin has inserted a note in the Ziemia Lubelska stating that it “is not true” that the Central Empires and in particular the German Government (sic) had exacted the publication of such a manifesto. …

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

If we compare the political situation created by the letters patent of September 12 to that which arose after the act of November 5, 1916, we see it is as follows:

The proclamation of 1916 was made by the authorities with all possible grandiloquence and solemnity, which quite seriously impressed certain groups less developed from the political point of view, and it was only when, soon after, the Germans betrayed their intentions and when the resistance organized by the Polish political centers began to manifest itself (Parties’ Club, and later also the groups on the Left)—resistance directed as much against the occupiers as against the harmful action of the Provisional Council of State—that the opposition of the country accentuated itself to finally become general. At the present time, when publishing the letters patent of the month of September, the authorities did so in far more modest fashion, and Polish public opinion, which had become very suspicious after past experience, received them with great coldness; nevertheless, the possibility should not be overlooked that the creation of the Council of Regency and the fact of having nominated therefor personalities enjoying great consideration in the country, as well as the intention of forming a serious Polish ministry, may, gradually—if however the occupying Governments do not again make fictitious promises—build up and strengthen in Polish public opinion the conviction of the real value of the said letters patent. There is no need for me to point out the political consequences which would be the result of such a development. It would be a mistake to treat them lightly. They should be foreseen in time and thwarted, and, with that end in view, no arm would be more efficacious in the hands of the directing Polish circles than a collective and solemn act from the Allies in regard to Poland, an act which is indeed wished and hoped for by the Polish people.

Kindly accept [etc.]

Marjan Seyda

2. Ante, p. 765.
3. In the Kingdom of Poland, the name of “activists” is given to those who wish to build up the Polish state upon the basis of the Austro-German Act of Nov. 5, 1916, even at the cost of political and military collaboration with the Central Empires (programme of the National Center) and the name of “passivists” is given to those who, while desiring to see the Polish state reconstituted in the briefest delay possible, yet are absolutely opposed to any political or military “activism” in favor of the Central Empires. (Parties’ Political Club, and, since the Russian revolution, the groups of the Left.) [Footnote in the original.]
4. Refusal to take oath, and resignations of large groups. [Footnote in the original.]